The first meeting of the Working Group on Validation and Piloting of Criteria for Quality Accreditation of Drug Demand Reduction Programs (DDR) in the Treatment and Prevention Areas in the Caribbean was convened by the Cooperation Program between Latin America, the Caribbean and the European Union on Drugs Policies (COPOLAD) in collaboration with the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD/OEA) and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO/WHO), on October 2-4.
The objectives of the meeting were to find synergy between the quality standards already developed byCARICOM, CICAD/OEA andthe proposed criteria by COPOLAD. The implementation of the criteria will help strengthen the institutional framework in drug demand reduction programs, as well as contribute to a collective construction of quality accreditation criteria according to the needs and characteristics of the English-speaking Caribbean countries.
PAHO/WHO has been participating in this project as part of the Advisory Committee, and has contributed in the development of the standards and the validation of the Spanish version. This initiative could be linked to other ongoing PAHO/WHO projects in the Region, such as WHO-Quality Rights and the field test of WHO-UNODC International Standards for Treatment.
Representatives of Trinidad and Tobago, the Bahamas and Jamaica were present at the meeting, as well as of CICAD and CARICOM. Dr. Claudina Cayetano participated on behalf of PAHO/WHO Mental Health and Substance Use Unit.
The three days meeting was within the framework of the quality accreditation process, which focused on the validation process, including the language adaptation of the standards, taking into consideration the Caribbean context.
